Whipstock YO-49

Whipstock

(YO - 9: dp. 1,731; 1. 236'0"; b. 37'0")

Whipstock (YO-49)—a fuel oil barge constructed in 1941 at Napa Calif., by the Basalt Rock Co., Inc.— was acquired by the Navy in mid-1942 and was placed in service on 23 September 1942.

Information regarding Whipstock's wartime service is scarce. However, she probably carried fuel from storage areas to various rear-area bases in the western and southwestern Pacific. By May of 1945, she was located at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. Through the summer, she made voyages to such diverse places as Tarawa, Johnston Island, Pearl Harbor, Midway Island, Saipan, and Okinawa. In October 1945, she moved to Japan where she began service supporting forces occupying Japan and China. She remained in the Far East supporting the occupation from 1946 to 1949. The little surviving information regarding her service thereafter strongly suggests that she remained in the Orient for the remainder of her long Navy career. Her name was finally struck from the Navy list sometime in 1975. One source indicates that the action occurred on 1 January while another places the date sometime in September. She was subsequently sold by the Navy, presumably for scrapping.